BOONVILLE — Starmount soccer continued its mercy rule run through the Mountain Valley Athletic Conference on Wednesday afternoon. The Rams hosted Elkin in Boonville in a game that lasted 43 minutes and saw Starmount take a 9-0 conference win.

It took less than three minutes for Starmount to score its first goal of the night. Victor Maya beat three Elkin defenders before facing down Elkin goalie, Chase Cozart. Maya faked to the left then put the ball past Cozart to give Starmount a 1-0 lead.

Starmount kept up its pressure on the Buckin’ Elks with several shots on goal. Cozart kept the score 1-0 with saves for the Buckin’ Elks. In the sixth minute of the game, Andres Ocampo put in his first goal of the night. The ball was in the 18-yard box and Elkin tried to clear it out, but Ocampo was able to put his foot on the ball and fire the shot into the back of the net. Three minutes later, Ocampo put his second goal of the night into the net to give the Rams a 3-0 lead.

The Buckin’ Elks barely had time to regain their composure before Ocampo found his hat trick. Maya made a breakaway and beat an Elkin defender before crossing the ball to Ocampo for the goal. With a 5-0 lead 10 minutes into the game, Starmount started to mix things up on offense. Four minutes later, Jose Patino made the score 6-0 as he had a wide-open shot from the top of the 18.

Elkin held the Rams to zero goals for 12 minutes, as time was approaching 18 minutes left in the first half. Elkin started picking up its pressure on the ball and started to win the 50/50 battles. Just as it looked like Elkin had control over the Rams, Starmount put three goals in the back of the net in three minutes. Jayven Najera, Maya and Marlon Mejia all scored a goal to make the score 8-0 at halftime.

The second half lasted all of three minutes before the Rams were able to score the ninth goal to put the mercy rule into effect. It was the ninth game this season that the Rams had won by mercy rule.

With the win, Starmount moves to 8-0 in the MVAC, and 12-1-1 overall. Elkin sits at 1-7 in the MVAC, and 1-12 overall.